Class Dispatch to David

Part 1 of class – Designer Meeting!

We started class by watching the recording of the zoom call designer meeting. It began with your director’s address on what this project is about, what its rehearsal process will look like, what potential impact will be, and why this project is more necessary than ever. You detailed how we will use visual, physical, and sonic elements to bring to life the worlds of the play: the sea and beyond.

Key (perhaps slightly paraphrased) quotes:

“Calling to illuminate and animate the unknown wonder of the sea”

“Ours could be the last generation”

“What havoc do we unwittingly weak on ourselves in the name of progress, industry… and ‘improving’ the quality of life”

Sully’s design presentation:

• Broadly, they touched on the idea of interconnectedness: the way lines can choke and connect us.
• Using the silks as kelp. Regarding costumes, they talked about using the weight and hang of clothes (i.e. loose weave) to build a cohesive ensemble.
• Three worlds:
  • Ethereal gods – 2D shadow
  • Humans– physical bodies playing characters and interacting with shadows and puppets
  • Ocean – 3D puppets and physicalizations

Grace on puppets:

• Looking to viking fabrics as inspiration!
• 3D puppets where the primary structure is skeletal and transparent and using loose hanging fabric lining to fill on some of the body.
• How can we use simplicity to fully bring to life these creatures? Just head and tail?

Part 2 – Norse Mythology Discussion

We discussed and clarified upcoming assignments and deadlines: Norse mythology written assignment due Friday 11:59 PM! Presentations of embodiment will be Monday in class.

Let’s chit chat about the readings 🙂

What are the sources for Norse mythology?

• The primary sources are the Eddas. Prose eddas were recorded by one beautiful man: Snorri Snurrason. The poetic eddas are sourced from multiple parties. The prose eddas serve as commentary on the poetic eddas. The poetic eddas are highly fragmentary. Norse mythology originated in and fully comes from Iceland. Iceland was a colony that was highly exploited for fish and mutton. The value from these industries was taken back to Denmark. Iceland achieved autonomy after WWI when its industries were in incredibly high demand.
• Historically, Iceland did not have access to paper. They did, however, have long winter nights and a history of telling stories around a fire at night. The only written documents were little texts written on scraps of paper and parchment. These were stolen by the Danish and compiled as the poetic eddas. This is why they are very difficult to follow, fragmented, and lack a set poetic form.
• Christianity: arrived in Iceland from Irish monks.

Norse Mythology world: who populated this world:

• Gods, giants, elves, dwarfs, kraken, Norns, animals (wolves, cow, eight legged horse), humans

How do humans get there? What is their status in this world?

• First humans were created from elm and ash (small and insignificant). Who else came from sticks being tossed away? Jörmungandr!
• Humans are puny >:(

3 year long winter:

• Human crops are destroyed.
• Wolves eat rabbits and mice and cannot. Food chain is highly disrupted.

Gods:

Each has a characteristic. They are all flawed physically and in their character. Lack the sense of bring “all-powerful”

What’s the deal with Odin? (Voice of Seinfeld)

• Flawed God. He gathers all the information he can, but is not innately all-knowing.
• Odin spends his time wandering (Thor too). Every night, his two ravens sit on his shoulders and give him information.

Thor:

• Assignment: patrol boundary between territory of Gods and territory of giants. (Leads to Hrymr sailing story)
• He has 2 goats, his magic hammer
• Big muscles, little brain
• Charismatic (disproportionately represented in carvings)
• Attributes: makes thunder and lightning,

Hrymr:

• Giant! There are frost giants and fire giants. Hrymr is a frost giant.
• Fisherman, he has a big boat made from fingernails of heroes: Naglfar
  Hrymr = Decrepit

Norns:

• Famous ones: 3 women: Urd (weird), Verdandi (present), Skuld (to be known)
• Assign fate when a human is born.

Fenris and Hel:

• Hel is the goddess of the afterlife realm of hel.
• Fenris is a big wolf (half god, half giant). Profession that Fenris and siblings will bring about Ragnarok.

Trolls:

• Spirits that guard mountains

Ragnarok:

• Great battle on a beach
• Death of the gods, death of the giants
• Everyone has a pairing of who will battle whom
• Humans are the witnesses (not directly involved)
• Snorri’s version: rebirth follows discruction

Abram’s notes:

• Myths tell history of cosmos from macro and micro
• Multiple points of views
  • Climate change, massive migration, hybridity across human and animal species
• Ragnarok: there is no single tipping point or beginning
  • We are always on our way to Ragnarok.
• In Eddas, there is a thin line between prophecy and reportage.
• Humans want to blame someone… but who?
• Ragnarok and the anthropocene are gendered

Recommended readings:

• Iceland’s Bell by Halldór Kiljan Laxness